Softball splits on final day of the season

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The South Dakota State softball team closed the 2013 season on Sunday with a doubleheader split on Kansas City. The Jackrabbits climbed out of a 4-0 hole to win the opener 11-7, and then squandered a late Game 2 lead to fall 5-4 to the host Kangaroos.

The split ends the Jackrabbits season with a 16-30 overall record and a 6-17 mark in The Summit League, while the Kangaroos finish the regular season with a 17-25 overall record and a 6-7 league record, and now wait for the rest of the day’s results to see if they qualify for next weekend’s league tournament in Fargo, N.D.

The Kangaroos jumped out to the early 4-0 lead, plating four runs on five hits in the first inning, and held on to that lead until the top of the third, when the Jacks got on board with an RBI from Elyse Eitel and a two-run double from Krista Honken that cut the lead to 4-3 after two-and-half innings.

UMKC got one of those runs back in the bottom of the third, before the Jacks turned four hits and a pair of Kangaroo miscues to score five runs in the top of the fourth, highlighted by a Sammy Bingham two-RBI single, along with RBI from Eitel and Devon Reick that put the Jacks up 8-5 heading into the bottom of the fourth inning.

A pair of Kangaroo runs as many hits in the bottom of the fourth cut the SDSU lead to one at 8-7, but and Emily Weber three-run homerun put the game out of reach in the sixth and secured the 11-7 win.

Weber and Honken both finished the game 3-for-4 from the plate, and both knocked in three runs, while Reick and Kleppin both added with a pair of hits and a run scored in the win.

The Kangaroos again jumped out to an early lead in the second game of the day, plating two runs in the first to take a 2-0 lead that they would take into, but not out of, the third inning, as the Jacks scored three runs on five hits and one error in the frame to take a 3-2 lead, highlighted by a Reick two-RBI single.

Alex Landon knocked in another SDSU run in the fifth to put the Jacks up 4-2, but the ‘Roos used a hit and two SDSU miscues to tie the game at 4-4 in the sixth, and then walked off a winner with a manufactured run in the seventh for the 5-4 win.

Six different Jackrabbits recorded hits in the game, as SDSU outhit the ‘Roos 9-4. Landon led the way with a 3-for-4 game at the plate with an RBI, while Weber went 2-for-3 with a run scored.

Kori Seidlitz got the decision in the circle for SDSU in both games, winning the first and losing the second to finish the season with a 9-20 record. Seidlitz also closes her career ranked second in career strikeouts at SDSU with 474, three behind Allison Sempsis, who recorded an SDSU record 477 strikeouts from 2000-01.